Many people, myself included, call New York the greatest city on earth.

How many shows and movies have been shot in New York? How many songs about the city? How many plays have stepped foot on Broadway and the theater district? How many people have made a living in the big city by pursuing their creative dreams? How many millionaires live in Manhattan? How many nationalities, races, unique backgrounds make up the face of New York?

Roughly 10% of America uses public transportation; around 80% of New Yorkers use it daily. The Mexicans are cooking your expensive French dinner better than most Frenchmen could. Manhattan is so dense, it can feel like being indoors while you're outside. It doesn't matter how crazy it is, if you know how to pitch an idea, you can make money off of it in New York. Coffee tables can cost $3,000. You can find 2,000 people in the middle of the street having a pillow fight, or dancing together to their own music on their own iPods. Graffiti is an artform. Poor and wealthy live side by side, blacks with whites, hispanics with asians, Catholics with Protestants with Jews. That is barely a taste of what makes New York so unique. It isn't always pretty. If you don't "get it" then you won't understand it, you won't find the beauty in it, in the grit that comes with the Big Apple. As they say, you need a New York state of mind.

New York will likely be my new home by year's end, and also the destination of my final spring break trip, so I wanted to pay a small but fitting tribute to the city. You'll find familiar attractions and everyday life represented here. Hopefully I understand New York enough as an outsider to do the city justice.

Enjoy!



I promise to, eventually, let everyone know they got featured.